Lilia Mironov, PhD

Art & Architectural Historian, Airport Dweller

“Airplanes and airports have my favorite kind of food service, my favorite kind of bathrooms, my favorite peppermint Life Savers, my favorite kinds of entertainment, my favorite loudspeaker address systems, my favorite conveyor belts, my favorite graphics and colors, the best security checks, the best views, the best perfume shops, the best employees, and the best optimism.”

– Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and back again, 1975)

I published my PhD thesis in February 2020. It’s called Airport Aura – A Spatial History of Airport Infrastructure.

I am working my two favorite jobs in the the world: I am an academic and a part-time First Class cabin crew at the national airline of Switzerland.

I got my Master of Arts in Art History at the University of Zurich and afterwards wrote my dissertation with a research grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. I was fortunate to be able to write about my favorite pastime – airports and their cultural history.

My passion is flying, literature and the arts. As a child I discovered Jack London’s adventurers and Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. They made me want to seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go places. 

After high school I studied English Literature, Romance Studies, Painting, Film Studies and Veterinary Medicine. None of which I graduated. So I joined the airline. It’s been the Grand Tour of my life! Flying gave me lust for life and offered me creative fulfillment. Through this job I discovered my love for the fine arts, after getting stuck in New York for a few days during a blizzard. As a result, I sought refuge from the snow in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There, I was literally spellbound and decided that I wanted to study art history, all the while flying. It is possible to have it all: An academic career and being up in the air. That way, work is always pleasure.

My traveling mind has been inspired by my favorite writers: Mark Twain, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Carl Sagan, T.C. Boyle, Jonathan Franzen, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gary Larson (he’s a visual writer!), Erich Maria Remarque, Rainer Maria Rilke, George Bernard Shaw, Vladimir Korolenko, Lev Tolstoy, the Brontë Sisters, Alexandre Dumas père et fils, George Sand, Guy de Maupassant… I live for storytelling!

second star to the right and straight on ’til morning